


tonight the music seems so loud

by kasttronaut



Category: Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)
Genre: Ch 4 Spoilers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, idiot falls in love and doesn't know WHAT to do, which one am I talking about?? nobody knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25725682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasttronaut/pseuds/kasttronaut
Summary: Did I name this a lyric from Careless Whisper specifically because Dom somehow plays the saxophone a thousand or so years in the future? Absolutely.
Relationships: Juniper "June" Nyux/Traveler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	tonight the music seems so loud

**Author's Note:**

> This is a piece I did for an art trade with a friend of his traveler, Dominic!

Orion. 

A simple name, short enough, pleasant enough. But the tension humming through the ship gave away just how awful their next stop was going to be. Even hidden away in his room, Dominic could feel it, could imagine just how tense June’s shoulders were right that moment. The look on his face when he’d stepped out of the meeting had been one of anguish. When Aya had gone to comfort him, Dom had wondered if he could get away with leaving to check on the gunslinger as well.

After Cal had left him alone with Damon and Vexx on the bridge, the meeting had been short. 

Damon had other things on his mind- Alisa and how she was doing, if he had to bet- and Dom didn’t want to be around Vexx any longer than he had to be right then. The interrogation was still heavy in his mind, Vexx’s _“What’s wrong with me?”_ replaying over and over in a haunting echo. 

There had been no trace of that desperate, broken man in front of him just before he'd left - the sniper's eyes were dull and shark-like as they regarded the ship’s ‘navigator’.

What was going on in his head? What was Vexx planning to do on Orion that Zovack didn’t know about?

Instead of asking questions he knew he wouldn’t get answers to, Dom went to his room. He would have gone to visit June, to check up on him, but after their conversation just before the meeting…

June wouldn’t turn him away, but emotions were high and the sweet gunslinger didn’t need the added stress. Dom would probably just put his foot in his mouth on accident anyway and say something rude, and the thought of making June more upset than he was sent ice through his veins. 

He ended up sitting on his bed, staring at the plant Ryona had gifted to him during the week where he’d hardly left his room. He hadn’t moved it, instead electing to leave it where the doctor had placed it, but just the sight of it made him feel a little warmer. 

He wasn’t an outsider here. The crew cared about him. 

He wished that wasn’t so hard to remember. 

A soft knock on his door pulled him out of his thoughts, and he frowned. Damon would have pulled him aside and dismissed Vexx if there was something else to tell him, and wouldn’t have let Vexx talk to him alone _again_. Aya would have just paged him over the intercom, Bash would have come in already, and Ryona was keen to let him have his space (and had already checked on him today.) That left Calderon.

Dom’s frown morphed into a grimace. He’d had so much shit thrown at him in the last few days alone, he didn’t need more on top of it. But if Cal needed something, he should probably get to it. He _had_ said he was willing to be the ship’s navigator, after all, and he wanted to prove himself useful. 

He stood to push the button to open the door right as it slid open itself. 

Dom swore as June’s surprised face met his own, but the gunslinger immediately frowned and put his hands up. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“No!” Dom took a step back, pulling a hand through his hair. “No, you’re fine. I was just-”

“Expecting someone else?” June’s smile was forced, and he might’ve let it slide if they hadn’t almost kissed earlier in the day. 

They’d almost _kissed_ , and neither of them had acknowledged it. June hadn’t said we’ll talk later like he had on Cursa, either, which had Dom thinking that maybe he hadn’t wanted to? And maybe he hated him and was just humoring him because he was a prince? Although that didn’t make sense, June hated the royal family and what the throne had allowed to be done to him. Maybe June was just humoring him because he didn’t feel the same. That would make sense, right? The handsome gunner was kind, too kind for his own good, that definitely sounded like something he’d do. Maybe he should-

“Dom, are you expecting one of the others? I don’t want to be a bother, I can-” 

Dom put a hand on his arm, shaking his head, and then immediately pulled it back when he realized what he’d done. “No. You’re fine, I’m not expecting anyone else, I just thought you were Cal here to give me orders but you’re definitely _not_ so-”

Dom needed a hole to open up in the floor right now. He didn’t care about the physics of it happening _in_ the ship, or if it would technically be a black hole and what that would mean for the crew or what Bash would do to him for causing another breach in the ship that he and Aya would have to patch. He just wished a hole would open up under him so he would stop embarrassing himself.

If only he could be so lucky. When a hole didn’t miraculously appear, Dom instead took a deep breath and shifted his weight. _It’s just June. I can talk to June._

_Maybe. Probably._

_...Hopefully._

“Sorry.” He took another step back and gestured for June to come in. “You’re not being a bother. What do you need?”

June took a tentative step in, and Dom noticed the tension he’d been carrying with him since stepping foot on Cursa, the tension that had been made worse by the announcement that Orion was their next stop, ease a little. 

“Not need - I mean, I don’t need anything.” June’s smile was a lot more genuine and a lot more embarrassed this time around, his cheeks darkening as he raised a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I had a question for you. On our way to Cursa, when you were staying in your room-”

_When we were avoiding each other_ is what he doesn’t say.

“-I heard music, and-”

Dom froze. “You heard me playing?” 

June’s eyes go wide, full of wonder. “That was you? There was one night I couldn’t sleep and, well.” He looked away, suddenly bashful. “I was still processing our conversation and ended up outside your room, and I guess I heard you. You play beautifully, what were you playing?”

Dom could feel his cheeks heating, his eyes glued to the plant Ryona had given him. The fact that June had heard him wasn’t embarrassing, really, but he’d been playing in the middle of the night after he’d woken up from crying himself to sleep. It’d been a sad tune that he’d play often in the palace, and the fact that he’d heard it and _liked_ it...

_You play beautifully._ Dom ran his hand through his hair again, his throat suddenly dry.

“It’s an old instrument,” he explained, still looking anywhere but at June. “It’s called a saxophone. The band at Oppo’s had one and Bash saw me eyeing it and convinced them to give it to me. I think there might’ve been a bribe involved? All I know is he said not to tell Cal or Ryona.” 

June grinned, the first full one Dom had seen on him since being on Nos Vega. “That does sound like Bash.”

His smile was so radiant that Dom couldn’t look anywhere else, and his mouth pulled into a grin to match the gunslinger’s. “Yeah, I guess so. But anyway. You had a question?”

June looked at Dom, gray eyes meeting dark brown.

“Would you play for me?”


End file.
